Printer-Friendly Page
|
||||||||||||||
 |
||||||||||||||
AFL-CIO News |
||||||||||||||
 |
||||||||||||||
Listen to Labor News |
||||||||||||||
A Clear Picture
|
|||||||||
Burrus Update #23-2009, Dec. 21, 2009
A recent study [PDF] by the Postal Service proudly reports the low cost of processing automated letters: just $6.17 per 1,000 pieces. What the analysis neglects to mention, however, is the wide disparity between USPS processing costs and the discounts the Postal Service grants major mailers for “worksharing.”
It costs six tenths of one cent to sort and process each automated letter, but the USPS deducts 10.5 cents per letter from the price of a stamp for mail consolidators and major mailers who print a bar-code on their letters and pre-sort them to the 5-digit zip code.
For 1,000 automated letters, which cost the USPS $6.17 to process in delivery sequence, the Postal Service “forgives” $105 in discounts for a portion of the work required to sort the mail into delivery seuqence, resulting in a loss of $98.83 per 1,000 automated letters. That amounts to a loss of $98,830 for every 1 million letters.
I have repeatedly expressed the union’s opposition to excessive workshare discounts that shift the costs of postal services from large mailers to individual users. And I have frequently pointed out that the law governing the USPS stipulates that discounts must not exceed the postal cost avoided.
Despite the outrageous USPS giveaways to major mailers, our critics suggest that the Postal Service’s financial crisis can be addressed by reducing employee wages!!!
William Burrus
President
